Human Resource Machine

Human Resource Machine is a visual programming-based puzzle video game developed by Tomorrow Corporation. The game was released for Microsoft Windows, OS X and Wii U in 2015, being additionally released for Linux in March 2016, for iOS in June 2016, for Android in December 2016 and for the Nintendo Switch in March 2017. Human Resource Machine uses the concept of a corporate office worker assigned to perform tasks that involve moving objects between an inbox, an outbox, and to and from storage areas as a metaphor for assembly language concepts. The player works through some forty puzzles in constructing a program to complete a specific task. A sequel, 7 Billion Humans, was released on August 23, 2018. Gameplay The game includes approximately 40 programming puzzles, each considered one "year" of the player's avatar tenure in a corporate structure. In each puzzle, the player creates a list of instructions from rudimentary commands to control the movements of their avatar on an overhead view of an office; the office includes two conveyor belts, one an inbox that sends in either an integer or a single alphabetic character represented as a small box, the other an outbox to receive these. The office floor typically also includes a number of marked number spaces that can hold one box each. For each puzzle, the player is told of a specific task, such as adding two numbers as they come in on the inbox, or sorting a zero-terminated string of characters, delivering these results in the proper order to the outbox. The player uses simple commands to create a list of instructions to perform the given task. Such commands include picking up the first item at the inbox, placing the item the avatar is currently carrying at the outbox, copying the carried item to a marked square, performing addition or subtraction of the carried item with the item at the marked square, and making decisions based on the value of the carried item such as if it is zero or negative. As such, these mimic the elements of assembly language: the simple instructions equivalent to opcodes, the ability of the avatar to hold an item mirroring a processor register, and the spaces on the office floor representing main memory. Later, the player gains the ability to use the concept of memory addresses, in which they can direct instructions to operate on a specific floor space that is labeled with the number of a different floor space.